Hang this on me.

[Jeff]

I've caused you guys a lot of inconvenience the last year. Most of you anyhow including myself.

For the last two or 3 years I have been having sleep and cognitive issues. The sleep issues are much better but the attention and memory thing is really bad. I've began the process of turning websites hosting back over to clients. @Tamiam and I work often together and she has seen my disfunction. You can thank her for us having a Christmas contest last year when she recognized my frustration and stepped into help me keep moving forward. We have moved all three of her websites to another host. You can thank my son Jeremy for this year's contest. He did the same thing for us. I can reason and compute as well as I ever did, but my brain now has white space I guess. I go blank. Blank blank. In the middle of things. Often. Then I struggle to regain what I was doing. Fine until the next time, which is sometimes only a few minutes off.  I get frustrated and angry and quit.  I don't know where all this will lead, but it sucks.

The last few days have been tough, but again with the help of Jeremy we figured some things out that should be most beneficial for the day to day ease of getting on the forum. The forum went down I think it was Saturday night the forum went down. Turns out it was a network cable, and the server farm in Dallas swapped it out and got us back up, however the way the server went down, it messed up the databases which were running, but hanging causing everything to slow. Also, the I.P. table black lists I have created over time, blocking malicious I.P. addresses did not load on boot up, and within minutes of coming up, we were under attack. Eventually we got things running right. I rebuilt the databases on the server, blocked the baddies again, and things seem to be running pretty good right now knock on wooden head.
whitespacewhitespace

Now finally to the point I started with. You know all those login problems ya'll have been having? Do you know those of you that have malwarebytes that you started getting phishing warning and had to add an exclusion? Do you know all those times you somehow ended up on orstryforum.com? And not forestryforum.com when you logged in? All my fault. Every single time. another story to explain if you have time.

Tammy and I decided this last week to start scaling way back on things since she is now retired. First thing? Cable T,V,  We went down and bought one of those $30 digital antennaes. 18 free channels here, We canceled the T.V., keeping the internet and we signed up for discovery+ for 6.99 a month.   We have a firestick and found out that the cable company streams 60 channels. We really never lost any channels other than the cable news channels (HURRAY) and are SAVING $138 a month in the end. This causes me to lose all my T.V. in the polebarn. Jeremy said Dad, use your phone to create a hotspot and then connect a firestick to the polebarn t.v. and connect to your phone. WAHLAH!   We got stuff!  So, we downloaded forefox browser for smart T.V. to try and login to the forum.

I'd seen it before, you all have told me about it. the dreaded ending up on .orestryforum.com.  Anytime it ever happened I could not recreate it. I've tried and tried. I'd run every scan I could. No malware. nothing WHY WHY WHY???
Well, this time on the t,v, browser we found out we could Delete all cache, and get it to do it every time. You can't attack the predator when it is invisible, but put a infrared scope on and ...

We started looking. and looking and looking. We were able to take the thousand haystacks and turn it into one. We were able to take that stack and run it through a filter with a magnet. We found the *DanG needle.


Last year, I had a health scare. You can read about it somewhere on the forum. we still don't know. Seizure? strokes? panic? stress? who the hell knows. I ended up in the e.r. That same week I had ordered a secure server certificate for the forestry forum. To go to https from http is no little matter on a website as expansive as this one. I had no intentions of taking that on that week, but low an behold, the certificate was actually installed when I ordered it before I paid for it leaving the entire Forestry Forum disabled. I was told at this point they didn't want me doing anything until they found out what was wrong with me, and here I am with a website that has everyone of you counting on, down. I dove in to the computer, not knowing that week if I was going to just shutdown myself.   I did my best. I got things going. but I missed something. I missed an F. one f. Don't let anyone ever tell you the f word is not important, cause this one was! :D

This is the first lines of code at the beggining of the home page of the forestry forum. You don't see it because the webbrowser and server converts it to the html that would be seen in the source code.

<?php
?>
<?php require("/var/www/virtual/forestryforum.com/htdocs/board/SSI.php");
$currentPage = 'https://'.$_SERVER['SERVER_NAME'].$_SERVER['REQUEST_URI'];
$welcome = 'https://forestryforum.com/board/index.php';?>

This line of code, I typoed and left out the f.

Code Select Expand

$welcome = 'https://orestryforum.com/board/index.php';?>
There we go. this line, on a successful login sends you to orestryforum.com. It only works that way if you enter from the home page, into the index page, and login there. If you skip the home page, you never had the problem. Enter malwarbytes. That line of code when they discovered it, kicked off the block. These guys must be phishing. logging you in and sending you to another website.

Ya know, there is a special place in hell of the (f words can be good we've learned) that bought the domain name orstryforum.com and was using it for typos. You know you are on a great website when there are people buying domains to catch typo mistake visits.

I'm not sure if we are still being blocked by malwarebytes,but if we are, it should end soon.

, ForestryForum said:
Hello, I am the owner of forestryforum.com and one of our users has said that our site is being blocked by malwarebytes. There is absolutely nothing malicious of any kind to my knowledge on our website, could you please remove it from the blocklist?

Hello, thanks for bringing this to our attention. We've reviewed the site again and have determined it no longer warrants being blocked so we've removed it from our database.  
Removal should be reflected in the next database update going out in a few hours or so.

[Texas Ranger]

I don't have white spaces, but DanGed if I know what you just said.  You do a great job, more than most of us can understand, white spaces or not.

[Jim_Rogers]

thanks for all you do and I completely understand the (f)rustrations 

Jim Rogers

[Tom King]

You don't owe anybody anything, including an apology.  Nothing to "hang"

[mike_belben]

trying to run this site would give anyone the white spots jeff. that you tracked it down is pretty impressive. 

[Southside]

Jeff, keeping this site going is an amazing feat onto itself. No need to apologise.

Since you did find the culprit it there any chance somewhere there is another line of code that redirects a user to a different site? Asking for a friend.  :D

[JJ]

It all makes sense now

      JJ

[Stoneyacrefarm]

Jeff,
Thank you for a great site and everything you do to keep it going for us. 

[51cub]

I can't say it any better than anybody already has. Thank you for all the work and effort you put into a great site

[barbender]

Jeff, absolutely no apology needed and thank you so much for keeping this site going!

[Nebraska]

I wondered why I got the orestry thing when I would log in.  I never figured it was something on the forum end. I just always thought it was me, or my stuff. 
Glad you figured it out, hang in there and thank you very much.

[Wudman]

I love this place.  Glad you found that gremlin.  I've troubleshot on my end trying to figure out why I made it to "orestry" any time I logged in.  I have plenty of issues on my end anyway, so it didn't bother me.  I'm right there with you on the whitespace issue.  "CRS" is my problem.  I've managed to lose my Carhartt coat that my wife had embroidered for me and it's bugging the crap out of me.  Hang in there.  We appreciate what you have done here.

Wudman  

[Southside]

Wudman - you lost a really nice hammer too by the way.  ;D



 

[petefrom bearswamp]

Thanks for the update Jeff.
I have not had any probs.
you however my friend are in my thoughts in you're time of distress.

[samandothers]

Sorry you are having the health issues.  I hope you will find a way to over come the issues and feel better.  It has not been a bit deal when I got the orestry....  I'd just close and start over.   
Glad the site did not go down because there would be a bunch of folk thinking it was taken down on purpose!  It is a great site that keeps me coming back for the information and fellowship.

[Corley5]

Job well done as always.  Thank You 8) 8) 8)

[trapper]

Thank you Jeff and Tammy

[Brad_bb]

What everyone else said!

I can't imagine Jeff!  I pulled my hair out in school just trying to debug little Fortran and C programs.

[WDH]

I have very dear friends here.  It has changed my life. 

[dgdrls]

No worries, no blame,

Take care of you first
the rest will be fine,

D

[Mean Dean]

Jeff,
You are appreciated by many people. You have prayers and best of wishes on your health!

[SwampDonkey]

Jeff, you do what you do because it is part of your soul. This place is another room in your house, we all come here to sit in that comfy chair to chat with one another in a safe place. When you find it is time to close the door at some point, which I hope is a few years off,  we'll understand. The old body and mind catches up with all of us at some point, and it takes a clear mind to do what you provide here every day. Just remember when we ask about something odd going on, that we are not complaining (well most of us), just think of it as a heads up.

[ellmoe]

Shoot , Jeff .I don't even want to think about what you have to do to keep this place running! Don't ever kick yourself , no one else is going to. This site has been a blessing for many. Most of your users work largely unconnected to people with similar labors , problems , investments , etc. Your website has allowed a level of support and friendship that is unobtainable without its existence . Take a step back and admire your success and don't sweat the problems . No one that matters is going to complain. Best wishes , my friend. 

[thecfarm]

As I say, you have to take care of yourself, no one else will.
I am thinking of you.

[Cedarman]

So thankful you have created and maintain a magical place where we can go for info, friendship, fun, and  have a feeling of welcome every time we visit. 
Thank You.